Christmas Cheer with Christmas Sewing and Quilting

December is always such a busy and fun month to enjoy the holiday festivities. I enjoy visits with family and friends throughout the month, the rush of holiday activities, and the Christmas decorations everywhere.

Christmas flower pot for entertaining

I haven’t had a chance to put my tree up yet but it will go up by the weekend. Meanwhile I do have a few decorations out. This pot containing white ornaments is a terra-cotta flower pot that I painted red and white. While I only use it at Christmas, the red color can double up for Valentine to hold goodies for the kids or a kid’s party. It’s very easy to make with a clean flower pot and red and white paints.

With cold weather, its fun to sew or quilt while staying warm inside. This Christmas Wrap Apron is very easy to make in a couple of hours and will dress up your holiday cooking. The pattern is available from Etsy as a download.

Free Christmas Apron Pattern

I have designed several Christmas quilt patterns which are also all available from Etsy. There’s still plenty of time to sew a fun quilt for a Christmas gift, to decorate with or just to snuggle under. This stocking quilt is fun for kids and is created by piecing. You can use your scraps or pre-cuts for this the stocking pieces.

Christmas Stockings Quilt

You will enjoy this Christmas Holly quilt for many years. This pattern is very versatile and can be made as shown below, or by making only the center wreath section for a smaller quilt or table topper. This quilt uses the techniques of appliqué and piecing. The holly pieces can be made from your green scraps or pre-cuts.

Christmas Holly Applique Quilt Pattern

This Christmas Tree and Bow quilt pattern is dimension made with “petals” that are sewn to the quilt and drop down loosely to give the feeling of a tree. The bows in the border are appliquéd, and the bow at the top of the tree is made of ribbon that is stitched on.

Dimensional Christmas Tree Quilt Pattern

I hope that December is filled with joy for each of you and that you are surrounded by the people you love. And that you get in a little Christmas sewing and quilting!

Phyllis

Sew a Bunny Apron for Easter

If you are stuck in the kitchen cooking for Easter, why not make it fun wearing this bunny apron? This apron will delight kids of all ages with the bunny pocket.

Easter Bunny apron pattern

This half apron made with this Bunny Apron Pattern is 33″ W and 21″ H and can easily be adjusted to another size. Buttons and embroidery floss embellishments are used for the bunny face. It can quickly be sewn for Easter or for everyday use in a couple of hours. The bunny pocket can be made without the bunny adornments.

Aprons are so trendy, you can wear it as a fashion statement while hiding the Easter eggs!

This Bunny apron pattern is first in a coming series of Special Occasion apron patterns and is priced so low you can easily buy one for each occasion. The pattern is available in my Etsy WhimsyColor shop.

Happy Sewing and Happy Easter!

Phyllis

Add Pizazz in the Kitchen with Retro Double Skirt Apron

Aprons are so much fun to wear when cooking in addition to being stylish and trendy.  This double skirted apron pattern is stylish with a retro feel.

Double skir apron pattern by Phyllis Dobbs

This apron pattern is medium sized and is easy to adjust if you want it smaller or larger.  The skirt is made with two layers with an underskirt and a second apron skirt on top and is completed with a handy pocket.

The bodice is topped with a ruched band across the top edge.  The apron has both neck ties and ties at the waist.   An option of 3 choices is given for fabric arrangement.

This double skirt apron pattern is available in my Etsy WhimsyColor shop.  I would love for you to visit and look through all the other patterns available including a wide assortment of quilt and quilt block patterns.

I hope that you get your apron on!

Phyllis

Sew an Apron With This Pattern!

You can’t have too many aprons, right? They are fun to make and fun to wear. This is an apron pattern that I designed for Quilting Treasures and is available in their free patterns and projects download on their website. (NOTE – this pattern is no longer available on Quilting Treasures website. I have designed a similar apron pattern that is available at Etsy WhimsyColor.

Wizard of Oz Free Apron Pattern

The aprons are designed with The Wizard of Oz fabrics by Quilting Treasures.  I love the bright colors!  And I, like I think everyone in the universe, have always been a huge fan of The Wizard of Oz. I’m still hoping for Dorothy’s red shoes.

This apron is easy to make in just a couple of hours of sewing.  You can make it with two or three coordinating fabrics or sew it with just one fabric for two different looks.

Happy sewing with your apron.  With these free patterns, it is easy to get started.

Phyllis

Redux – Sew a Christmas Apron

Sew a quick Christmas apron in just a couple of hours and wear it tonight! Aprons are fun and trendy to both sew and wear! I designed this apron pattern to wear for Christmas cooking and entertaining. Designed for an earlier post here on my blog, I wanted to share the apron pattern  again. Its so easy to make, even for a beginner, and can be made in a couple of hours from your fabric stash.

Free Christmas Apron Pattern

This apron pattern and others are available in Etsy WhimsyColor.

Thinking of Christmas aprons brings thoughts of all the wonderful smells of food cooking, cinnamon, and other spices. I also think of the citrus smell of oranges.

Enjoy both sewing and wearing it!

Phyllis

Interview by BluPenny for Sketchbook Story

One of the best things about traveling to trade shows and events is meeting people who I’ve talked with via social media and forums.  At the Surtex show last year, I met Cindy Ann Ganaden in person. She is a fellow artist and author of the BluPenny blog. She publishes a Sketchbook Story series in which she interviews artists on their inspiration, how they use it to create sketches and finalize into art.  The art is then licensed for various products.BluPenny Blog
Cindy Ann just interviewed me and posted the interview for the Sketchbook Story in which I show my inspiration and results. I used my cat for inspiration to create an art collection which was then turned into a fabric collection for Quilting Treasures. Everyone has different techniques and ways they use to create their art.  I hope you will check out mine.

The apron shown in the interview can be downloaded – free half apron pattern.

I’m off to Houston for Quilt Market.  Please check back as I will post pictures of Market next week.

Phyllis

Redux – Sew a Spider Apron for Halloween

Halloween is rapidly approaching. It always gets here before I’m ready and I have to make a mad dash the day before to stock up on candy for the trick or treaters. Thinking that I would be more prepared this year, I decided to repost my apron pattern for this Spider Halloween apron in advance to give you plenty of time to sew one.

This pattern is available at Etsy WhimsyColor.

Spider Halloween Apron Free Pattern

The body is the spider is a pocket and rick rack is used for the legs. Jumbo orange rick rack embellishes the bottom edge. The apron is easy to make and can be sewn in just a couple of hours (you can even make it Halloween morning or the day before). You can wear it if you are helping your kids with Halloween festivities at school or elsewhere or just as an accent while walking with your own trick or treaters.

Have a creative day!

Phyllis

Chick Power – Sassy Chickens and Roosters on New Products

“Chick Power”, a whimsy art collection of chick and roosters was created to bring smiles! I painted this series of  four chicks and two roosters with humorous word sayings to go with their activities of having a good time. Painted in bright colors, the series features “Kick up your Heels”, “Wine a Little”, “Live It Up”, and “Queen of the Hunt” for the chicks. For the roosters there are “Strut Your Stuff” and “Play a Little” (How many of you have seen a golfing rooster?).

These whimsy chick and rooster images are now available on over 80 products in my Zazzle store and can be fully customized. Below are samples of the products available from my “Chick Power” collection.

 

Available products include stationary (cards, invitations, etc), aprons, mouse pads, tee shirts, shopping bags, mugs, aprons and much more.

Put a little Chick Power in your day!

Phyllis

Free Patterns for Aprons and Quilts

Please note that this apron pattern is no longer available through Quilting Treasures website.  However due to the demand for it, I have recreated another pattern similar to this. It can be found on the Etsy Whimsicolor.  

Note also – The Rails quilt pattern below is also no longer available through Quilting treasures and has been redesigned.  It can also be found on the Etsy WhimsyColor.

I love sewing and quilting with beautiful fabrics, so its fun to design projects for Quilting Treasure’s website with some of their newest fabrics. I have finished several quilt and sewing designs for Quilting Treasures that can be downloaded free from their website and wanted to share them with you. Using the red, white and blue fabrics from Studio 8’s collection Monaco, these aprons can be made in a blue or red color combination. The aprons are sassy with two layers for the skirt to include a little overskirt. The top band of the bodice is ruched for extra detail.

Aprons in red or blue colors

This quilt is easy to sew and is made with the red colors of the collection. The blocks have a random arrangement of fabrics.

Free quilt pattern designed by Phyllis Dobbs for Quilting Treasures

Happy sewing!

Phyllis

Create a fun apron for Halloween

I love sewing aprons and just created this Halloween apron with a spider pocket.

I used orange and black stripe fabric along with orange and black solids. Rick Rack is used for embellishment. The spider is the pocket and has rick rack for the legs and a large button for a head.

This apron pattern and others can be found at Etsy WhimsyColor.

Its so easy to make and you can sew it in a couple of hours or less. I would love to see the aprons that all you creative sewers make using this pattern so please send me pictures or comment!

Happy sewing!

Phyllis